


To Keep From Drowning

by dreamerfound



Series: This Looks...not so bad? [2]
Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Injury, F/M, Fade to Black, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, Shower Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:06:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29596671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamerfound/pseuds/dreamerfound
Summary: After things go horribly wrong at a block party Clint and Kate offer each other some comfort.(the double drabble 'maybe tomorrow' is a tiny little prequel to this story, but it doesn't need to be read first or at all)
Relationships: Clint Barton/Kate Bishop
Series: This Looks...not so bad? [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2174394
Kudos: 6
Collections: fan_flashworks





	To Keep From Drowning

**Author's Note:**

> written for fan_flashworks challenge #326: Button

Clint drops his gear in the corner with a sigh. What a stupid messed-up day. He turns and sees Kate wrestling with her dress. It’s a cute purple sundress type of thing with thin straps and all these fancy little buttons, or it had been. Now it’s a torn and bloody mess. Kate makes a frustrated noise and a couple of the buttons drop to the floor. He crosses the room and takes her hands in his. “Here, let me help.”

“I hate this,” she tells him. Her hands are shaking and she sounds angry and scared - or maybe that’s just him.

“You’re okay, Kate. You’re home - we made it. We survived,” Clint says. He’s not sure if the words are for her reassurance or his. 

He manages to get the dress undone without the loss of any more buttons, not that it really matters much at this point. The dress is likely unsalvageable. He peels the dress off of her, trying to be as gentle as he can, but some of the blood has started to dry and it’s not an easy task.

“You need a shower,” he tells her once the dress is off.

“So do you.”

He shrugs. “I can wait.” He turns around to head to the bedroom but she grabs his wrist. He turns back.

“Together,” she insists.

Together? Kate wants them to shower together? He opens his mouth to tell her no but she says her thing first.

“Please.” She packs so much emotion into that one word that he can’t say no. Not that he actually wants to say no, he just knows that he should. There’s a line that he’s been trying his best not to cross for a very long time and now he’s about to step over it. 

“Okay.” Clint follows her to the bathroom and shuts the door behind them. Kate undresses with her back to him while he gets the water temperature just right. He gets out of his jeans and pulls off his t-shirt. “Fuck,” he mutters. The fabric sticks to his side where some asshole sliced at him with a long jagged looking knife. He’d been kinda hoping the asshole had missed. No such luck, apparently.

It hadn't even been a job or a mission or whatever. It was a silly little block party down the street. The two of them thought it’d be fun. A few hours of downtime to drink a few beers, eat some barbecue and just relax and be normal people for one afternoon. It’d been fun until the attack, and then everything had gone to shit. 

He looks up and sees Kate step into the shower. Clint finishes undressing and takes his hearing aids out before joining her.

She hands him a washcloth, the scent of her lilac body wash is heavy in the air. Between the hot water and the familiar scent, he can feel himself relaxing a notch. Clint washes her back and checks for injuries. There’s a large bruise starting to blossom on her left hip and some scrapes from when she hit the pavement. He can see the bruising on her arm too, still faint but he knows it’ll darken by tomorrow. Fingerprints from where the asshole had gripped her as he shoved a gun against her head. Clint had wanted to kill him. In that moment he’d wished he was someone else, someone who was okay with casually killing murderous assholes. He ended up putting a couple of arrows in the guy. He’d live. Probably.

He’s standing too close. He knows it but it’s not like there’s a lot of room in the shower. He hands back the washcloth and tries to put a little distance between the two of them. He grabs his shampoo and washes his hair. 

Suddenly, Kate’s there in front of him. He tries not to let his eyes linger, he really does. Then her hands are on him and she’s checking the slice in his side. It’s still bleeding. He sucks in a breath as she pokes at it. There’s this angry look on her face and he's pretty sure she wants to punch him. Her hand goes to her head and for a moment he thinks that maybe she really is going to punch him, but then she makes the ASL sign for *idiot*. He shakes his head. There's no world where he's going to feel sorry for trying to save her. He grabs her shampoo and gestures for her to turn around. “Let me wash your hair.” He needs the distraction.

Kate scowls at him but after a moment, she turns around. He squeezes a dollop of shampoo into his hand and massages it into her hair. He loves the smell of this stuff. After he finishes rinsing the shampoo out, he notices a small bruise starting to show on her shoulder. Before he even realizes what he’s doing his lips are on her skin. He places a gentle kiss directly on that spot, and then a few along her neck. Kate’s right, he’s an idiot.

She turns around and Clint fully expects to get slapped or at least told off, but instead, Kate wraps her arms around him and presses her mouth to his. The kiss deepens and hands begin to roam. Clint knows he should probably put a stop to this. He knows that Kate’s probably feeling vulnerable, and after the day they had, who would blame her? He doesn’t want to stop but someone has to be the responsible one, right? Then she wraps her hand around his cock and all his thoughts slip away.

They don’t leave the shower until the water starts to run cold. They dry off with the one clean towel he has left. He puts his hearing aids back in and waits for her to say something about what just happened between them. 

Kate studies him. Eventually, she points to the cut on his side and says, “Let's get that patched up.”

He looks down at the injury. Even he has to admit that it's not looking so great. It looks red and angry and it’s still seeping blood, but at least the flow has slowed down some. “Yeah, sure.” 

Kate grabs the first aid kit and heads to the bedroom. He follows. She gently pushes him down on the bed, and he leans back and tries to keep his mouth shut while she cleans and dresses the wound. He knows if he talks he’s going to end up saying something stupid.

“So, that happened,” he says. Yeah, like that. 

Kate looks up at him and rolls her eyes. “When’s the last time you had a tetanus booster?”

He has to think about it for a minute. “About a year and a half ago - after I fell through that warehouse window running from the ninja robots.”

She nods and finishes taping his bandage. “If that gets worse, you’re going to the hospital.”

He thinks about arguing but knows it won’t do any good. He recognizes the determined look on her face. He sighs and says, “Fine.” 

Kate goes to his dresser, pulls out some clothes, and tosses them at him. “Get dressed, I’m hungry.” 

He watches her pull on one of his favorite t-shirts and doesn’t say a word. 

In the kitchen, Clint fills Lucky’s bowl with kibble and pulls a couple of menus off the refrigerator door. “Pizza… or pizza?”

Kate gives him her judgy look. “You know restaurants have their menus online now, right?”

“Did you want something that’s not pizza?” They almost always get pizza.

“No, I just thought I’d point it out - oh, we should get pizza from that place next to the weird nail salon. They have those little cinnamon and sugar donut-like things,” Kate says.

Clint orders a large pepperoni pizza, a side of breadsticks, and the dessert things Kate asked for. They set up on the couch, in front of the television. Kate drags his comforter off the bed and into the living room and after they eat she wraps it around the two of them as she cuddles up against him. It's nice but they should probably clear the air or something, right? “So, should we talk about what happened?” He feels her body go tense against him. 

“What, at the block party?” She says the words very carefully.

“No.” Clint doesn’t want to talk about the block party, that had been a disaster. He could have lost her and he doesn’t want to even think about that right now.

“So, you mean the sex?” Kate shifts so she’s not leaning against him anymore.

“Um, yeah?” Maybe it was a bad idea to bring this up. One of these days maybe he’ll learn to keep his mouth shut.

Kate moves just a little bit further away from him. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t - what?” He’s confused. Damn, he really does sucks at this sort of thing.

Kate turns away from the television where she’s been watching some weird reality thing with people dancing. “You don’t need to worry about me getting weird and clingy. We had sex. It was fun - it wasn’t a marriage proposal - I’m cool.”

“Fun?” Should he feel insulted? He’s feeling kind of insulted.

“Look, we both had a difficult day, obviously we needed to blow off a little steam, it’s normal,” she says it so lightly - so devoid of any emotion. 

She moves another little bit further from him and Clint can’t help but think he’s fucking this up. He has to fix this. “I thought I was going to lose you.” He takes her hand. “I can’t lose you, Kate. Whatever this is - whatever it becomes - I don’t want to fuck this up.”

“Why?” Her hand is still in his, but she’s holding herself stiffly and he’s afraid that any minute she’s going to pull away and leave. He doesn’t want her to leave.

He shakes his head. He’s an idiot. “Because I love you.”

The tears in her eyes start to fall - Oh shit, what did he do now? She moves closer and kisses him. “I love you too, Clint. I want to give whatever this is a try, okay?” 

He wipes a tear off her cheek and brushes the hair out of her eyes. He wants to be careful with his words. He sucks at this part, but he needs to try. “I’m afraid I’ll mess this up - mess us up.”

“I know.”

“Sex is - it makes things complicated and messy,” he tries to explain.

“Pretty sure that ship’s sailed, Hawkeye.”

Clint laughs. “You’re probably right, Hawkeye.”

Kate smiles and it lights up her face. “Look - it’s us - sure sex complicates things but we can deal with complications.” She shrugs. “We can deal with anything.” Kate yawns and leans her head on his shoulder.

“We should probably get some sleep, it’s been a long day,” Clint says.

“Yeah, that it has. Let’s move this to the bedroom. I’m already sore, I don’t want to make everything eleventy billion times worse by sleeping all scrunched up on the couch.” Kate stands up and drags the comforter back to the bedroom.

Clint follows. “So, we’re doing this?” He needs to make sure they’re on the same page.

Kate tosses the comforter on the bed. “Are you asking if we’re going to have sex again, or do you want to know if we’re starting some kind of relationship?”

“Yes?” Clint answers.

Kate climbs into the bed. “Then, the answer is yes - to both.”

Clint joins her under the covers. “Okay, good.” 

“Really?” Kate asks.

“Definitely.” And it is.


End file.
